If you want an introduction on how to use Cursor as a designer, here’s a must-watch video. It’s just over half-an-hour long and Elizabeth Lin goes through several demos in Cursor.

Cursor is much more advanced than the AI prompt-to-code tools I’ve covered here before. But with it, you’ll get much more control because you’re building with actual code. (Of course, sigh, you won’t have sliders and inputs for controlling design.)

Haiyan Zhang gives us another way of thinking about AI—as material, like clay, paint, or plywood—instead of a tool. I like that because it invites exploration:

When we treat AI as a design material, prototyping becomes less about refining known ideas — and more about expanding the space of what’s possible. It’s messy, surprising, sometimes frustrating — but that’s what working with any material feels like in its early days.

Clay resists. Wood splinters. AI misinterprets.

But in that material friction, design happens.

The challenge ahead isn’t just to use AI more efficiently — it’s to foster a culture of design experimentation around it. Like any great material, AI won’t reveal its potential through control, but through play, feedback, and iteration.

I love this metaphor. It’s freeing.